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Jun 5, 2012

Blog Tour: Crazy Dangerous by Andrew Klavan (review & giveaway)

Welcome to your next stop in the blog tour for Crazy Dangerous by Andrew Klavan hosted by YA Bound.

I loved this book and thanks to the publisher, one of you will have a chance to win an ebook of Crazy Dangerous.

Published May 1st 2012 by Thomas Nelson

Summary:

Sam Hopkins is a good kid who has fallen in with the wrong crowd. Hanging around with car thieves and thugs, Sam knows it’s only a matter of time before he makes one bad decision too many and gets into real trouble.

But one day, Sam sees these thugs harassing an eccentric schoolmate named Jennifer. Finding the courage to face the bullies down, Sam loses a bad set of friends and acquires a very strange new one.

Because Jennifer is not just eccentric. To Sam, she seems downright crazy. She has terrifying hallucinations involving demons, the devil, and death. And here’s the really crazy part: Sam is beginning to suspect that these visions may actually be prophecies—prophecies of something terrible that’s going to happen very soon. Unless he can stop it.

With no one to believe him, with no one to help him, Sam is now all alone in a race against time.

Finding the truth before disaster strikes is going to be both crazy and very, very dangerous.

About the Author:

Award winning author, screenwriter and media commentator Andrew Klavan is the author of such internationally bestselling novels as True Crime, filmed by Clint Eastwood, and Don’t Say A Word, filmed starring Michael Douglas. Andrew has been nominated for the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award five times and has won twice. His books have been translated around the world. His latest novel for adults, The Identity Man, has been praised by Nelson Demille as “fast paced, intelligent and thought-provoking; a great read!” Television and radio host Glenn Beck says “Andrew Klavan never disappoints…one of the best illustrations of the power of redemption that I’ve ever read.” His last novel Empire of Lies was about media bias in the age of terror, and topped Amazon.com’s thriller list. Andrew has also published a series of thrillers for young adults, The Homelanders, which follows a patriotic teenager’s battle against jihadists. The books have been optioned to be made into movies by Summit Entertainment, the team behind the mega-successful Twilight film series.

Crazy Dangerous made me happy reading it from the beginning and won me over thanks to its main characters, Sam and Jennifer.

The story is told in alternating voices of these two. I can't remember the last time I've read a YA book with a voice so crystal clear and genuine as Sam's. He's a character so wonderfully mischievous and cute and real. He has no supernatural powers, he's not super-hot and mysterious and brooding. He's your regular next-door 16-year old kid who gets into trouble. Jennifer on the other hand is broken and haunted. Her visions make for a chilling and nightmarish reading experience.

When they get together, it's not an explosion of hormones. Another big plus for this book is that there's no sizzling romance. The relationship between Sam and Jennifer develops as a sort of friendship. Jennifer is not exactly a person to chat with over coffee. If I tell anything about her condition, it might spoil the book. But in the end, it all makes very much sense.

The ending...I wish it followed the path that was set from the beginning of the story. It takes a leap of faith, so to say, as some things are revealed. Crazy Dangerous is religiously colored, particularly in the last third of the book. I'm not a religious person (but that doesn't affect my opinion of the book.). I got the not-so-subtle hints (guy in the truck). Still, I felt like these details were in discordance with what was previously established, and that was something very logical and rational.

Crazy Dangerous has its moments of hilariousness and creepiness, and a wonderful main character. Despite the little bump toward the end, mainly because of different views, I would still highly recommend this book for many reasons: not a single YA cliche in sight, a male POV, thoroughly frightening psychological insight, excellent narration and well-developed characters.

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